Lock-Rabbet Drawer Joints
Page 4
6. Position a drawer back on edge with its inside face against the fence. Cut a 1/4x1/4" rabbet in both ends as shown at right. Make these cuts on all of your drawer backs. Now s a good time to cut the 1/4x1/4" groove in each of your fronts, sides, and backs for holding the drawer bottom. Leave the fence and dado set where they are, position your drawer parts inside face down with their bottom edges against the fence, and cut the bottom-holding groove.
7. Raise the dado set for a 3/8"-deep cut. Readjust the fence so the dado set just grazes it. Position your drawer fronts face side up on the saw and complete the cuts on their ends, as shown.
8. To assemble each drawer, first test-fit the parts. Then, apply glue to all of the grooves and rabbets. We suggest you make the bottoms from plywood instead of solid stock. In that way, you can glue the bottom in place without concern about expansion and contraction problems.
Assemble the glued parts, clamp them together, and measure diagonally from corner to corner to check for square. If one diagonal is longer than the other, place a long clamp along that diagonal to bring the drawer into square.
To learn more about woodworking joinery, visit the Joinery Section in the WOOD Store.
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Have used this method many times. Comes in handy when I don't have the chance to use dovetails.
3/28/2013 12:10:22 PM Report AbuseFor other readers - don't print w/the page links on the article, but use your explorer print command (upper right hand corner for my system) - it allows you to print the entire article, and true to WOOD's word - the banner doesn't print. Apologies to the staff! Thanks for the article.
3/28/2013 10:20:52 AM Report AbuseThe annoying subscription offer won't let us print anything on the site. I'm already a subscriber! How can we avoid the banners that interfere?
3/28/2013 10:17:05 AM Report Abuse